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The Harare City Library is now a more interesting place for different types of readers. This is due to various developments in the recent past.
After it was renovated with financial support from the Culture Fund of Zimbabwe in partnership with Sweden, the fresh looking library has stood out beautifully at the fringes of the CBD along Rotten Row Road.
The serene environment in and around the library, with the Museum of Human Sciences situated peacefully next to it, enables the reader’s mind to travel and wallow in different worlds of the creative imagination.
In an interview, HCL consultant librarian Edwin Madziwo described the library as an invaluable friend of every person from birth to old age.
Madziwo said normally when the mother is pregnant she reads books about baby care and in other words, this means she will be reading on behalf of the unborn baby.
After delivering the baby, she continues to read until such a time the baby reaches pre-school age and starts to show signs of reading habits such as playing with crayons and drawings.
“The library provides the mother with resources such as bedtime storybooks and drawings for her kid,” said Madziwo.
The Harare City Library’s children’s section is rich with books for pre-school and primary school going ages. However, Madziwo said they are in the process of making the section more colourful and brighter in order to make it appeal to children.
Every year, the HCL hosts a Children’s Reading Tent at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair.
The tent conducts fun-filled games, writing and reading sessions for the children. This year, the tent had a special focus on teenagers and how to improve their reading habits through the use of mobile technology such as cell phones.
Madziwo said according to the International Federation of Library Associations guidelines on public libraries, no one should doubt the role of the public library to children because this is the age of their first contact with the library, introducing the child to a future of an exciting, rich and valid resource.
“Every child should be familiar and comfortable with their local library,” Madziwo added.
Coming into contact with a book or library for the first time as a child is a bewitching moment in anyone’s life.
For instance, in a novel called “The Shadow of the Wind” by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, 10-year old Daniel is for the first time invited by his father, a veteran librarian, to a monumental place called “The Cemetery of Forgotten Books”, a second-hand booksellers’ guild. It is Daniel’s turn, according to tradition, that he must choose a book, whichever he wants, and adopt it, making sure that it will never disappear, that it will always stay alive.’
It is a very important promise Daniel has to make and later in his father’s bookshop, after he has chosen his book, he learns that few things leave a deeper mark on a reader than the first book that finds its way into his heart.
Children bank memories of their first book experience and they live with them throughout their lives.
Madziwo said primary school children may go to school libraries but public library services go an extra mile in the development of the child’s social and intellectual aspect.
The HCL has not forgotten disadvantaged children in its provision of services.
“We have outreach programmes for disadvantaged communities. The HCL goes out to the community to identify children deprived of reading resources and bring them into the library space.
“We provide them with reading sessions in a quiet environment. It is this quiet environment that induces the concept of lifelong learning development in them,” said Madziwo.
Modern public libraries cannot do well without information and communication technology and the HCL, given the capacity, would want to purchase kindles aimed at introducing technologies such as e-books for the disadvantaged communities.
For instance, ICT outreach programmes will see a number of kindles lent to orphanages and old people’s homes for a given period of time after which HCL will take them back and lend them to another group.
Madziwo said the HCL will in future hold writing skills training workshops and seminars with children just as they do during the ZIBF at the Children’s Reading Tent.
“We do not want the activities to end with the ZIBF but we are looking at holding them at the library as well and publish the stories on our website so that other kids are inspired to visit the library to contribute their works,” he said.
As the child grows beyond primary school level, it also becomes a broad user of the library who is not restricted to the children’s section only. The teenager or young person has such services to enjoy as internet and online resources in this library.
On a broader scale, Madziwo said HCL is also planning to partner with writers’ associations such as Writers International Network Zimbabwe which caters for upcoming authors and the Junior Council so that they can utilize the library for their activities like debates and researches.
This will see the Junior Council making meaningful contributions in their parliament for the development of the country at large.
As for the professional needs of the public, the HCL has come up with a professional library section providing tailor-made services.
The brand new computer centre has exclusive access to the online Oxford Reference Library, an important resource for students and researchers. The library, said Madziwo, will in the near future provide a platform on e-resources which can be accessed from remote locations.
Asked if the HCL has a collection of books by local authors, Madziwo said indeed the library has the books.
“We are also planning to engage local authors who have works that are being studied at O and A levels as literature set books to come and talk to students and hold discussions with their readers,” he said.
For the senior citizens, HCL has volumes of do-it-yourself and leisure books. “We also engage senior citizens to come and impart knowledge to young people through storytelling sessions at the library,” he said.
Public libraries all over the world have been an important part of the educational system and their communities and they act as ‘People’s Universities’ in any country.
One of the challenges these institutions face is under-funding or lack of government support.
The Harare City Library, established by the Harare City Library Act (Chapter 25:05) as the Harare City Library Trust, is run neither by government nor the Harare City Council. One of the purposes of the HCL, as defined in the Act, is to promote literacy, reading and literary activities.
One becomes a member upon payment of a membership fee while primary school children can use the library for free. Other branches of HCL include Mabelreign, Highlands and Mount Pleasant.
Online Reporter